Now Hiring: Peer Mentors

5/24/12: Update. All positions are full at this time. Please check back for future postings.Note: This posting is for a position through the San Francisco Study Center to work at Project Homeless Connect's Growing Home Community Garden's Seeding Resilience Project.

Job Summary: Under the direct supervision of the Growing Home Community Garden (GHCG) Program Manager, the Peer Mentor provides outreach and support to enable individuals with mental health issues to fully participate in the GHCG.

Compensation: 10 hours a week at the rate of $11 an hour.

Click here to see the full job description. This file is a word document, if you have trouble viewing it from a pc you can also click the link and choose "save as" to download the file to your computer. Send an email to the contact info below if you would like this file emailed to you.


How To Apply:
Click here to get a copy of the application form.

Please send a completed application, a cover letter and your resume to: megan.rohrer@sfdph.org

Due to the high volume of applicants, not all applicants will recieve a response to their resume. We will do our best to be in touch with as many applicants as possible about their status in the process.

Please send any questions about the postion to:

Megan Rohrer
Program Manager
Growing Home Community Garden
megan.rohrer@sfdph.org
415-503-2196

Garden Parties

This past Thursday and Friday, 33 individuals who attended the most recent Project Homeless Connect event attended a follow up party at either the Bayview Roots Garden or Growing Home Garden. Participants enjoyed lunch and garden skill shares.

Carole taught a skill share on how to transplant rose scented geraniums.

Wednesday at the garden

We've started offering a free yoga skill share at the garden every Wednesday at 2:30pm. We have a few mats at the garden that can be used or you are welcome to bring your own.

We just put up a sign to let people know which days during the holiday we will be closed. December 14th we will be closed, because we will be helping out at the Project Homeless Connect Event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. We'll be handing out fliers and talking to people about the garden parties we will be hosting on December 15th and 16th.

A special thank you to everyone who has dropped off hoodie donations at the garden for our Hoodies for the Homeless drive. The hoodies will be given away at the Project Homeless Connect event. Our regular volunteers from the SF Friends School 3rd grade delivered 68 hoodies and an addition 43 have been donated by facebook friends and neighbors.

Hoodie status: 512 donated; 1,488 needed by Tuesday, December 14th.

If you would like to donate hoodies, check out our drop off locations around San Francisco. All donations should be new or gently used and clean. Thank you for supporting Project Homeless Connect and helping to keep those living on the streets a little warmer this winter season.

Today at the Garden: Planting Succulents

Today at the garden, we took advantage of the beautiful day and planted some more fence pockets. Because some of our larger succulents have been removed from the pockets (hopefully getting planted in other gardens) we got smaller succulents that are more difficult for those who pass by to remove. We collected some more large tin cans that we painted and will be drilling water holes in on Wednesday.

Check out the different types of pockets and succulents that we planted today.

We're experimenting with different sizes and materials to see what kind of pockets the plants like the best.

Can you find Carole, one of the peer mentors in this photo?

One of the favorite volunteer tasks of our gardeners is watering. So, we've converted our south lot into perennial flowers that don't mind lots and lots of watering.

Above, Gloria is showing me the kinds of cut foods that the worms enjoy.

Visitors and new volunteers are welcomed at the garden anytime we are open. Above, you'll see someone passing by and chatting with volunteers who explain what they're planting.

Ty, leads a skill share on planting succulents. Join us in the garden any Monday, Wednesday or Friday from 12-4:30pm. All are welcome!

Free Yoga at the Garden

Come enjoy an expansive experience among the flowers.
Breathe in the calm lavender breeze.
Every Wednesday 2:30 pm
250 Octavia San Francisco
http://www.growinghomecommunitygarden.blogspot.com/
We have a few mats, please bring one if you have one.
Totally Free.

Join our Hoodies for the Homeless Drive

A hoodie can be used as a jacket, a pillow, a sleeping bag or to provide hope for a better tomorrow.

Help us collect 2,000 sweatshirts and hoodies for the participants of the December 14th Project Homeless Connect (PHC) event.All donations should be new or gently used and clean. Adult mens sizes preferred.Click here to find a donation drop-off site near you.

PHC's December 14th event at the Bill Graham Auditorium will provide over 2000 poor, homeless, uninsured or underinsured individuals hundreds of services. PHC participants achieve in one day what may take up to eight months.

Since PHC's inception in October 2004, 32,537 clients have been connected to services and housing; 22,290 volunteers, 250 non-profit, government and corporate providers have collaborated offering over 450 different services to clients. If you have any additional questions about donations, please contact: megan.rohrer@sfdph.org or call 415-503-2123

Final Tomato Harvest Hastened by Fungi

Today at the garden, we had the final harvest of our tomato plants. Some members of our garden community wished we could keep the plants in the ground until every single tomato turned red. However, today because of the spread of three common types of mold and fungi, we needed to pull all the remaining plants before the fungus was able to spread to other plants in the garden.

Because of the fungus on the tomatoes, we were unable to put the tomato plants in our garden compost and disposed of the plants in our city compost bins.

Below are some photos of the tomato plants in our garden and the information shared at today's skill share about blight and fungus of tomato plants.

You'll notice from the photo on the left that many of our plants had several branches that had dry wilting leaves. A majority of the tomato plants looked very similar to the one in the photo.

When one stem of the tomato plant is dried out, it's typically Fusarium and Verticillium Wilt.


In the photo to the left you can see white mold that had not only infected our tomato plants, but had also spread to the tomatillos.

Late blight, as seen in the picture below, was found in almost all of the tomato plants in our garden.

It is identified by round black marks on the tomatoes, sections of brown splotches on otherwise green tomato stems and brown spots on the tomato leaves. You can find more information and photos in the video below.

The photos below show tomatoes that would have been possible to harvest if they were removed last Wednesday, when part of the plants that had died were removed. Less than three days later the blight rotted the tomatoes and made them inedible. This not only showed us how quickly the fungus could spread in our garden, but also let us know that if we didn't harvest the tomatoes today they would not have lasted until our next garden meeting on Monday.












Learn more about late blight and how to spot it in tomato plants in this video: